Portland-based writer Emma Higgins was shocked to discover that her favorite local writing spot, Café Topia, finished writing its poignant memoir before Higgins could even make a dent in her fourth chapter.

Three hundred years ago, during the Age of Enlightenment, the coffee house became the center of innovation. Back then, most people went from drinking beer to consuming coffee (i.e. from being tipsy to being wired) and ideas started exploding.

I used to drink coffee. All the time, actually. I drank it in high school, because pouring liquids from one container into another, and then into my body, was the most exciting thing that could happen while minding the front desk at the Y. I drank it in college because my stupid professors kept yelling at me for sleeping in class.

It's often when caught up in life's to-do list that we can also get caught up in our own mental interpretation of what's going on in the world around us -- and then make it all about us, when in fact, it has nothing to do with us. If we would instead take a moment to breathe and observe, we just might learn something.